10 Things to Know About "Ghosted"

In this new "X-Files" meets "Lethal Weapon" sci-fi comedy, Adam Scott and Craig Robinson play a scientist and a cop who are recruited by an underground agency to deal with all things paranormal. — Sharon Knolle

Scott says about his character, Max: "He's a disgraced astrophysics professor and his theories and beliefs got him in trouble. So he's the Mulder. He was fired, he's a laughingstock. His wife, he believes, was abducted by aliens, so he's sort of a ruined man when we meet him in the pilot."

"Leroy is much more of a skeptic. Max is an expert in the paranormal and Leroy thinks it's all b.s.," says Scott.

On the show, Max (Adam Scott) absolutely believes in aliens and wrote a book about the "multiverse," with parallel worlds similar to our own. His unlikely partner Leroy (Craig Robinson) doesn't buy into any of that.

In real life, the roles are reversed. Scott tells IMDb, "I do not believe in the supernatural. But Craig does."

Robinson confirms that, saying that "yes, absolutely," he's had paranormal experiences in real life. He laughs that he and Scott are the "complete opposite" of the characters they play in that regard.

"Leroy, he was on the LAPD as a top detective and he got let go from the force because of some mysterious circumstances surrounding his partner's death," explains Craig Robinson of his character, who is now unhappily employed as a mall cop.

That is, until the agency intervenes and gives him and Max some real (if far-out) cases to tackle. "He's happy to be back in the field," says Robinson.

Meanwhile, Max is thrilled when the agency confirms that his multiverse theory is real... and so are aliens. Now if he can just find his wife!

"We've all been on since the beginning, we all pitched it together," says Gormican of the equal input from Scott and Robinson. "There's a lot of these guys in it. They had a huge part in developing it."

"It was a team effort. We were involved in [deciding] who these guys are. Tom was really generous in asking us who they are and why they need each other," says Scott.

"We're trying to create this new thing where the scares are actually real and we actually feel scared, but undercutting it with comedy," says series creator Tom Gormican.

"The problem with going too far in a comedy direction is that it becomes parody very quickly and that's the number one thing we want to avoid. It's not a parody of the genre, it's part of the genre," he says.

Adam Scott adds, "We want it to be funny, but we also want to give you a jump now and then."

"They're constantly butting heads," Adam Scott says of the very different Max and Leroy. "But they also need each other and the friendship kind of immediately sprouts from all this conflict. What we've been saying is that, at our best, it'll be Midnight Run meets 'Stranger Things.'"

"Leroy doesn't like Max right away," adds Craig Robinson about the built-in conflict between the two. "He wants to do his own thing." The show ends up referencing such classic buddy comedies as 48 Hrs., Lethal Weapon, and Beverly Hills Cop, and even some action classics. "We had a moment [on set the day of the Paley Fest] that felt like some Pulp Fiction," Robinson relates.

"In keeping with the throwback nature of the show, we're trying to do real effects as much as we can," says co-creator Tom Gormican, so when Max and Leroy encounter an alien that can take off its head, that's a real head they're holding. Or rather, a real fake alien head.

Tom Gormican was mum about who's all going to drop in, but he did say, "Dax Shepard just came in and had a really cool [role]. A lot of people are coming on … and dying."

Shepard's appearance is a Knocked Up reunion of sorts, since he, Adam Scott and Craig Robinson all had small roles in the 2007 comedy. Scott played a nurse, Robinson a doorman and Shepard played himself.